A political furor erupted on Thursday over the inauguration of the Constitution Club of Rajasthan, with former chief minister Ashok Gehlot opposing Speaker Vasudev Devnani’s announcement of a new programme schedule, saying the club was already inaugurated by the then Congress government in 2023.

The idea of the club was conceptualized and the building was also built and inaugurated under the previous Congress regime (2018-2023). Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Devnani on Tuesday announced that the club would be inaugurated by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Saturday.

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Gehlot has taken strong exception to Devnani’s announcement and said it is aimed only at taking undue credit for work done by the predecessors.

Talking to the media, the ex-CM said, “The Club was built and inaugurated under the previous government on September 22, 2023. The then Assembly speaker Dr CP Joshi, then Parliamentary Minister Shanti Kumar Dhariwal, then LoP Rajendra Singh Rathore and I myself participated in the function.”

Since then the incumbent BJP government has kept the club closed for almost one-and-a-half years only with the motive of taking (undue) credit for the good work of our regime.

They are attempting to inaugurate again a project that had already been inaugurated almost one and a half years ago, that too by a constitutional authority as high as the Speaker of Lok Sabha. This is not befitting either to the decorum of the organizers (Assembly Speaker) or the chief guest (LS Speaker), the Congress leader said.

“We all respect the Lok Sabha Speaker. He himself should opt out of this programme,” he added.